G. Ward Price

Ward Price was a journalist on the Daily Mail, who in 1912 served as a war correspondent with the Turkish army in the Balkan War. In 1915 he was an official war correspondent at the Dardanelles, later transferring to Salonika. Ward Price remained a special correspondent of the Daily Mail, and first featured in the British Movietone News in October 1933, when he was shown interviewing Josef Goebbels for ‘INTERNATIONAL CRISIS DOMINATES MIND OF ENTIRE WORLD’ in No.228A. When the British Movietone News was redesigned in April 1935, Ward Price was apparently one of the commentators brought in to give it what its producer, Gerald Sanger [qv], called ‘star value’ - along with Tom Webster [qv], R.C. Lyle [qv], Eric Dunstan [qv], and Malcolm Campbell [qv]. Ward Price was first credited as commentator on ‘MEMOIR: Marshal Pilsudski of Poland,' in No.310A from May 1935, and he also worked on a similar item on Lawrence of Arabia for No.311A in the same month. He seems to have been well received, the Picturegoer noting in October 1935 that Ward Price was ‘one of the best commentators which the new system has revealed.' As it explained, he wrote clearly and concisely, and ‘his clear, authoritative, perfectly modulated voice carries with it the conviction that ‘puts his subjects over.''

Ward Price provided a number of commentaries during the six months after May 1935, largely on reports of international diplomacy, but then his contributions stop. As with Webster [qv], it is possible that Ward Price was only given a six-month contract. He returned for ‘CONCORD: Britain and Italy sign the Mediterranean Agreement’ in British Movietone News No.396A in January 1937, but that was his last credit as commentator. On the outbreak of war in 1939 Ward Price became an official war correspondent for the Daily Mail, going to France with the British Expeditionary Force. He afterwards served as war correspondent in Tunisia, being shown in ‘TUNISIA - VICTORY COMPLETE’ in British Movietone News No.728 in May 1943, and he again served in France in 1944. Ward Price was a director of Associated Newspapers.

Sources

W. A. Pullan ‘Unseen stars of the news reel,' Picturegoer, 19/10/1935, p.24: Who’s Who 1897-1996 CD-ROM.